Ten years ago, on 3 June 2012, Dana Air Flight 0992 crashed while on approach to Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS) in Lagos, Nigeria. The aircraft, a 12-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-83, registered in Nigeria as 5N-RAM, crashed into buildings killing all 153 passengers and crew and six people on the ground.

It was Nigeria's worst aviation disaster since an Alia Royal Jordanian Airlines Boeing 707 crashed in Kano in 1973, killing 176 passengers and crew.

The left side engine began to lose thrust

Dana Air Flight 0992 departed Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (ABV) in Abuja at 14:58 local time for the just over one hour flight to Lagos. The weather conditions were good, with the aircraft being piloted by 55-year-old American Captain Peter Waxtan and 34-year-old Indian First Officer Mahendra Singh Rathore.

With Rathore at the controls 17 minutes into the flight, the crew noticed an abnormality with the left side engine. Despite the engine settings being selected correctly, it was not producing enough thrust. Rathore asked Captain Waxtan whether he should ask the flight engineer to look at the engine problem. Waxtan said no, that the pair of them could figure out the problem for themselves.

Waxtan then asked Rathore if any ground crew had tampered with the panel near the plane's rear door. The captain was suspicious because before the flight arrived in Abuja from Lagos, he had refused the ground crew's request to let the passengers disembark from the rear door.

Despite the suspicion that one of the ground crew might have tampered with the plane, they decided to continue rather than divert to the nearest airport. They contacted Lagos Air Traffic Control (ATC) to request permission to descend, not mentioning the engine problem. They also did not follow the procedure to look at the emergency checklist for an inoperative engine.

After being cleared to descend, Waxtan told Rathore to increase the plane's rate of descent. The First Officer declined, saying it was better to do it gradually. After being cleared by Lagos ATC to land on Runway 18L, the crew again made no mention of the faulty engine. As the flight was making its approach, Waxtan took the controls from Rathore and, with the right engine still functioning correctly, believed they could safely land the plane. As the aircraft got closer to Lagos, they went through multiple checklists for the approach but failed to read the guidelines about landing the plane with only one engine.

They lose power to the right engine

Flying a bit above where they wanted to be, Waxtan increased the plane's rate of descent to address the situation. He then asked Rathore to set the flaps to 15, yet they would still need additional thrust for the landing.

Now in a problematic situation, Waxtan tried to decrease the descent by increasing the thrust to the right engine. To the captain's surprise, the right engine did not respond with both engines now not producing thrust; they declared an emergency 11 miles from the airport.

Now flying under no power, the aircraft continued to lose its speed and altitude; with the low altitude warning sounding, the plane crashed into the densely populated Iju-Ishaga neighborhood near the airport.

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The investigation into the crash

After an extensive investigation that involved the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Pratt & Whitney Canada, a 210-page final report, was published on 13 March 2017. The investigators concluded that probable cause factors for the crash were:

• Loss of power to engine No.1 followed by loss of power to engine No.2
• The crew failed to realize the severity of the situation and did not go through the appropriate checklists
• A failure to divert to the nearest airport
• Lack of situational awareness and inappropriate decision-making

After the crash of flight 992, Nigeria's aviation safety has improved significantly, and the country has managed to retain its category 1 aviation safety rating.